Question

When the pitching of a ship is upward, the effect of gyroscopic couple acting on it will be

(a) to move the ship towards port side

(b) to move the ship towards star-board

(c) to raise the bow and lower the stern

(d) to raise the stern and lower the bow

I got this question in an internship interview.

Question is taken from Precessional Angular Motion topic in chapter Gyroscopic Couple and Precessional Motion of Machine Dynamics

Answer 1

Right option is (b) to move the ship towards star-board

Explanation: The effect of the gyroscopic couple is always given on specific position of the axis of spin i.e. whether it is pitching downwards or upwards. The pitching of a ship produces forces on the bearings which act horizontally and perpendicular to the motion of the ship.